Holding The Line Guide Service

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Month: August 2016

This past Saturday morning, August 27, I fished a multi-species trip on Belton Lake with Zach and Zoe Aviles. This trip was arranged through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Zach with the first fish of his life, a nice Belton Lake white bass taken on a soft plastic bait and jighead.

Zoe with the first fish of her life, also taken on a soft plastic bait and jighead during a brief surface feeding blitz

After an evening of rough weather the night before, things stabilized overnight and we awoke to clear skies, calm winds, and hot and humid conditions.

I let the kids’ mom, Dina Aviles, an active duty service member in the U.S. Army, know right off the bat that I did not intend for this to be an endurance contest, so whenever she and the kids had caught enough fish and were ready to go, just to let me know, as I was quite concerned about the heat and humidity.

Although the fish did show up on the surface this morning during the lowlight period, it was not at very first light as it has been for the past several weeks.

Neither Zoe nor Zach had ever caught a fish in their lives before, so, at first light when no fish were showing, I went right to the downriggers – – essentially a summertime fishing insurance policy! No longer did we get the two- and three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons down in the midst of the fish showing on sonar, than we began pulling fish with regularity right up until the fish began to show on the surface.

The topwater fishing was confined to a fairly small area, and did not last long at all, but enabled us to put 22 fish in the boat very quickly, and give Zach and Zoe a chance to cast, retrieve, set the hook, fight fish, and land fish all by themselves after I began by doing everything for them and then slowly transitioned them into doing everything for themselves.

When the top water fishing ended, we spent about 25 more minutes steadily pulling white bass on the downriggers, and then, with winds still near calm, the sun’s intensity increasing, and the heat rising, we left this open water fishery behind and headed up shallow to gun for panfish.

The sunfish cooperated well this morning. While fishing a shoreline with mixed rock, wood, and green vegetative matter, we were able to boat bluegill sunfish, redear sunfish, and green sunfish very steadily.

When the novelty of the sunfishing wore off, we headed back to open water to wrap up our trip fishing for catfish. I think the name “catfish”, and the fact that I told the kids early on that these fish would make noises, intrigued both of them. We set up in a hover using the Ulterra’s Spot Lock feature in 29 feet of water. I put out chum to get the nearby catfish active and draw more distant catfish in. We then baited our lines, suspended our presentations off bottom, and began enjoying the fruits of our labors. Each of the kids was able to land three blue catfish before mom and grandma had enough of the windless heat and decided to call it a day right at 10:15.

SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors. To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 49 fish, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp: 84.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~2.69 feet high. Lake is falling slowly at ~.11 feet per day

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 019-1788 downrigging and topwater for whites up shallow under low light

This past Thursday evening I fished a multi-species trip with West Virginia National Guardsmen Scott Piper, Mac McAninch, Floyd Watts, and Phil Arnold. This same crew, minus Floyd, also came out with me this past Tuesday evening and had such a good time that they wanted to treat Floyd to a trip, too.

Fresh from the fight — West Virginia National Guardsman Floyd Watts hit Belton Lake, courtesy of a few fishermen in his unit, within hours of stepping off his plane back to U.S. soil from Iraq.

Floyd, literally, just got off a plane coming in from Iraq hours before stepping aboard my boat. As we headed out in the 92F afternoon heat, he commented how “cool” it was versus the 120F+ heat he’d left behind, and said 90F was a typical temperature around midnight where he’d just come from.

This afternoon’s bite was a tough one, thanks to unstable weather and light winds. We employed a variety of tactics to put together a total bag of 45 fish.

We first connected with fish via downrigging over a small breakline dropping from 17 to 28 feet. We used Pet Spoons behind a pair of downriggers with the ball set between 14 and 17 feet to get bit. This area gave up 14 fish.

Next, we moved on to deeper water and found abundant, schooled fish, however they were locked down on bottom. We were able to convince a few to strike using a smoking tactic, but results were few and far between. When I switched over to the downrigger, the fish really never budged. Usually, in deep water, and when fish are tied to the bottom, active fish will come up out of the school and inspect the downrigger ball as it passes by overhead. We really never saw this happen until nearly 7:15 PM. We gave cat fishing a try in the meantime as we waited for the sun to get lower, hoping the whitebass would get more active as that happened. The catfish certainly cooperated, but as has been the case all summer, ran pretty small.

Once the sun got behind a thin layer of clouds in the western sky, a few fish responded immediately and began to strike on top water. We got to them as quickly as we can and threw soft plastics on jigheads, catching a few whites and a few largemouth.

As the next 45 minutes passed, the sun set below the western horizon, and during what is normally the best window for top water action, none took place this evening.

We finished out the night with a grand total of 45 fish and talked of the fellows returning for some of the awesome late November fishing after their aircraft returned from Iraq and these Guardsmen returned from their home state to pick them up.

Floyd took big fish honors with a 3.25 pound hybrid taken on a slab worked vertically.

TALLY = 45 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 92F

Water Surface Temp: 87F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~2.80 feet high. Lake is falling slowly at ~.11 feet per day

This past Thursday morning, August 25th, I fished with Jerry Shirley, his wife Elizabeth, and his younger brother Zack, who was in visiting from North Carolina before starting high school again next week.

From left: Zack, Elizabeth and Jerry Shirley with a sampling of white bass taken on this morning’s multi-species trip on Lake Belton.

Jerry is a recently separated U.S. Army veteran, and Elizabeth is still on active duty and headed for a deployment to South Korea in early 2017. I appreciate the service of all of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that come on my boat and am glad to be able to offer a $30 discount to them on their fishing trips.

This morning we fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton. This was the calmest, and the clearest day we’ve had since the cold front came in two Fridays ago, and since the low-pressure and rain moved out this past Tuesday.

As is typical on bright, cloudless days, most of the white bass and hybrid striper action was frontloaded in the first 70 minutes of the trip. During this time we found numerous, aggressive schools of white bass mixed with hybrid stripers herding shad to the surface and feeding upon them there thus making enough commotion to be visually detected from quite some distance away. Additionally, gray terns were feeding over top of many of these schools, making them even easier to locate.

I had Jerry positioned in the front of the boat sight-casting to the left and right as we approached these schools, and I had Zack and Elizabeth on either side of the boat in the stern each manning a downrigger set 20 feet back and 12 feet down equipped with Pet Spoons behind umbrella rigs.

The fish came easy right up until 8:10 when the sun rose sufficiently high and became bright to the point that it pushed the fish down off the surface.

At this time we pursued species number two, which consisted of throwing soft plastic grubs on quarter ounce jig heads to schooling largemouth bass up in shallow brush. This lasted about 40 minutes and, as we were pulling away from these fish, we then spotted “popcorn” schools of white bass ambushing shad out in deep, open water. We did a “run and gun” routine for a while, catching just one fish per person (maybe) as we arrived, cut the engine and made accurate casts. The fish would the sound and we’d never see them again.

Around 9:15 we began pursuing species number three: blue catfish. We found abundant catfish hugging bottom in 28 to 32 feet of water chummed the area to get the fish active, and then fished cut shad to tempt them.

The catfishing is pretty relaxed, so, as you hold your rod and wait for a bite, it’s a good time to talk and tell stories. When I learned that Jerry’s family was from North Carolina, I told them of my fishing trip to the Outer Banks a few years ago and how we enjoyed the Carolina pulled pork and thin BBQ sauce. That’s when Jerry started confessing things — serious things, like high crimes and misdemeanor things … like smuggling a certain brand of Carolina BBQ sauce across multiple state lines so he doesn’t run out while he’s here in Texas.

By 11:05 we had boated exactly 103 fish. With the already light wind getting even lighter, and the sun feeling hotter, we decided to call it a good morning and head in for lunch.

This past Tuesday evening I fished a multi-species trip with West Virginia National Guardsmen Robert “Mac” McAninch, Scott Piper, and Phil Arnold. These fellows were sent to Ft. Hood to help their aviation unit as that unit’s soldiers and equipment returned from a deployment to Iraq.

From left: Scott Piper, Phil Arnold, and Robert “Mac” McAninch of the West Virginia National Guard.

The fishing has definitely not been as productive as when we had the low pressure and accompanying cloud cover we were blessed with for about 11 days following the cold front that pushed through on August 12th. Unstable weather typically produces average to below average fishing. Year-in and year-out my parties average 62 fish per trip; tonight we caught 73.

As we got on the water it was both breezy and bright. We put about a dozen white bass in the boat in the first hour and lost several more as we fished under well-dispersed terns diving down on shad forced to the surface by loosely schooled white bass down below them.

When the tern action cooled off we did a bit of catfishing. Scott really excelled at this after getting a feel for the necessary timing on the hookset right off the bat. We put 22 cats in the boat before returning to the pursuit of white bass and hybrid.

By 6:30pm we began probing up a bit shallower in 20-25 feet of water with downriggers and over the next hour enjoyed our most productive stretch of the night, routinely hooking up with singles and doubles.

Once the sun hit the western horizon, we looked intently for surface-feeding fish but found none. I did find heavy concentrations of white bass carpeting the bottom in water between 8-12 feet deep. To close out the trip I Spot Locked us near such a school of fish and we fan-cast to them using blade baits. We steadily picked up additional white bass in this way until they shut down right at about 8:30p.

TALLY = 73 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 90F

Water Surface Temp: 84-85F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE5-6

Sky Conditions: 30% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~3.31 feet high. Lake rose 0.30 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

This past Saturday morning I fished with U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 (CW3) Ray Behan, his wife, Gaby, his dad, Steve Behan, the Behan’s daughter, Virginia, and Ray’s niece and nephew, Tyler and Reese Volk. Steve came in for a visit from Louisiana, and the Volk’s were visiting from Salem, Oregon.

From left: Gaby Behan, Reese Volk, Steve Behan, Virginia Behan, Tyler Volk, and Ray Behan, each with sampling of the 163 fish we caught on Belton this past Saturday as the white bass fed long and hard at the surface in pursuit of threadfin shad.

To say the fish cooperated today would be an understatement. Not only was there surprisingly few boats out (the weatherman’s bark was worse than his bite), the grey skies, gentle winds, and low-pressure conditions we experienced in advance of an afternoon of rain was just a perfect combination to get Belton’s white bass population fired up enough to feed on the surface long and hard.

We caught white bass from 6:40a to 9:30a by downrigging with a pair of downriggers with baits set up high in the water column (just 9-12 feet down), while Ray carefully sight-cast from the front deck of the moving boat into schools of fish off to our left or right. By 9:30 we’d boated exactly 80 white bass and 1 hybrid striper.

As the skies brightened a bit, the surface action died, so I quickly switched us over to fishing for catfish with cutbait. We caught a mix of 33 blue catfish and a channel catfish in just 45 minutes. The time was now around 10:15am. I asked if everyone would like to ride out the remainder of our trip continuing to catch catfish, or if they’d like to roll the dice and take a chance on finding (or not finding) more white bass action. By this time the skies had begun to darken a bit and a large weather complex sat just off to our SW over the Hill Country.

The family vote was for more white bass action, so, we simply rode from place to place being observant. We spotted some well-spread, aggressive white bass action by around 10:30, and fished over these fish another 40 minutes until the changing wind and weather put them down for good. In this final 40 minutes of fishing we boated another 49 fish, including 2 hybrid stripers and 47 white bass.]

Throughout the trip, Reese kept exclaiming, “This is SO exciting!” as she watched schools of white bass force young of the year shad to the surface and church the water white with their aggressive pursuit of these small baitfish. I would have to agree with her!

TALLY = 163 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:10a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp: 84.7

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5-6

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds with rain beginning to fall on our way back in to the dock at the end of the trip.

Water Level: ~3.01 feet high. Lake rose 0.30 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

This past Friday afternoon, August 19th, I fished the 13th SKIFF program trip of the year with Mrs. Tina Eaton and her 2 children, Cheyenne and Charlie, as well as the 2 children of U.S Army Specialist Ryan Mahin Sr. and his wife, Felicia.

And the white bass cooperated, too. From left: Ryan, Charlie, Layla, and Cheyenne.

As we began our trip we were blessed to have grey terns simply materialize out over open water with hungry white bass pushing young of the year shad to the surface beneath these birds. Given the ages of the kids, and the fact that there were four of them, I decided to go with 2 downrigger rods and fish just subsurface for these aggressively feeding fish with the balls set about 9 feet down.

As you might expect in the early afternoon, this action didn’t last long, but it did last long enough for each of the kids to catch two sets of doubles on the two– and three– armed umbrella rigs I was trailing behind the downrigger balls. Not only did this allow the kids to enjoy early success and keep their interest going, it also allowed Cheyenne and Charlie to land the first fish of their lives

After the terns lifted off the water and the whites settled down, we moved up into shallow water and introduced all four kids to sunfishing using a simple float, split shot, hook, and worm. We used just one rod and had the kids go in a four-way rotation to avoid tangles.

After the sunfishing and its novelty tapered off, the time was around 7 PM, which meant the white bass should have just about been ready to begin their final evening feed. I made my best estimate on where the fish should turn up, and this turned out to be a good estimate. We found fish beginning to congregate and rise off the bottom and move slowly shallower beginning in about 20 feet of water. We set our downrigger balls between 12 and 15 feet and began to catch fish on each pass through the area I had selected.

After each kid got to take two or three rounds on the downriggers, the fish finally broke the surface and allowed for sight casting from that point up until they quit right at around 8:30. Our grand total for tonight’s effort tallied exactly 70 fish … but that wasn’t all!

The Mahin kids were in for a huge surprise… as we approached the courtesy dock, their dad was standing on the dock to greet them after arriving home from a lengthy National Training Center (NTC) rotation in Fort Irwin, California. The kids were not expecting him until later in the weekend.

Thanks, Mrs. Eaton, for your hands-on help on this trip. I wouldn’t have gone near as smoothly without you!!

The Austin Fly Fishers make these trip possible with their generous donations, fundraising efforts, and partnerships with groups like the Sun City Hunting and Fishing Club, the Sun City Women Helping Other (WHO) organization, the McBride Foundation, and others. To schedule a trip for your child while your military spouse is away, just call 254.368.7411. With the school year now underway, SKIFF is offering after school and Saturday trips.

TALLY = 70 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:450p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 83F

Water Surface Temp: 84.7

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds with rain between 4:40p and 5:40p

Water Level: ~2.71 feet high. Lake rose 0.35 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

THE FOLLOWING STORY APPEARED IN THE KILLEEN DAILY HERALD, SUNDAY, AUG. 21, 2016:

Like many local anglers, Steve Niemeier, of Temple, had some reservations about fishing on Belton Lake given recent reports of flooding, closed facilities, turbid water and more. Niemeier sent me a text message on Aug.7 simply asking, “How’s the fishing?”

Knowing that Niemeier rarely arrives without at least one grandchild in tow, my reply assured him that both big numbers of fish and a variety of species were accessible at Belton Lake, and likely would continue to be into early October.

With that, he booked a trip Friday with his grandson, 11-year-old Caleb Fowler, and Caleb’s cousin, 13-year-old Tevan Gilmore, both students at Lake Belton Middle School.

As we corresponded in advance of the trip, Neimeier made a special request — that we help Caleb meet several of the requirements to get a fishing merit badge. These included catching a fish, identifying the fish we caught, learning to tie two fishing knots, using spinning gear and baitcasting gear, measuring a fish and cleaning and cooking a fish.

Our trip began at 6:30 a.m. I provided a safety briefing, pointing out where all safety gear is stowed, explaining what to do if someone fell overboard, and showing everyone where the boat’s two required noise-making devices were located.

After that, I introduced everyone to the spinning tackle and baitcasting tackle we would be using, making sure the handles were on the appropriate side of the reel for each angler. I then previewed how I expected the day would flow, based on the past several days’ results. I then prayed for our efforts and we throttled up and left the boat launch area behind.

We made a beeline to surface-feeding fish revealed by the fish-eating terns flying over the water just above them, scavenging the dead and crippled shad left there by the hungry fish below. We used a combination of casting and downrigging to catch our first 30 fish before our first hour on the water had gone by.

As opportunities presented themselves, we slowly whittled down the list of Caleb’s scouting requirements. By 8 a.m., both boys had used both spinning and casting gear, had landed and identified multiple species of fish including white bass and hybrid striped bass, and Caleb posed with a 17.75-inch hybrid striped bass which we measured properly — with mouth closed and tail lobes pinched together.

When the exciting topwater action died down and the terns headed back to roost, we quickly transitioned from targeting white bass and hybrid to targeting blue catfish and channel catfish. Using cut bait positioned near the bottom, we held the boat in place using the Spot Lock feature of my Ulterra trolling motor to avoid anchoring and disturbing that portion of bottom we were fishing over. We pitched chum into the water to attract catfish from all around us and then concentrated on our rod tips to watch and see when a catfish had grabbed one of our baits in its mouth.

Over the next two hours, Niemeier and the boys caught catfish after catfish, taking our tally for the morning up to 101 fish landed by 10:45 a.m. Occasionally, a catfish would swallow a hook so deeply that the hook had to be abandoned to give the fish a chance at surviving. This afforded Caleb an opportunity to learn to tie both an improved clinch knot and a Palomar knot.

With so many catfish coming over the side so quickly, we had our choice of size and species to choose from for Caleb to take home and clean. Although my guide service has an all catch-and-release policy, this seemed an appropriate time to make a small exception.

As we concluded our trip, Caleb pulled his rolling cooler filled with ice up the hill toward the parking lot weighted down with a freshwater drum, a channel catfish and two blue catfish for him to clean and eat as he continues to work toward earning his fishing merit badge.

This past Thursday afternoon, August 19, I fished with Mr. Chris Howell and his 12-year-old son, Danny, both of Round Rock, Texas.

After the storms passed, the white bass went on an absolute feeding frenzy. I was not uncommon to see a white bass 12 inches long regurgitate 5 or 6 young-of-the-year threadfin shad like the two shown above in the mouth of this white bass.

Chris Howell and his 12-year-old son, Danny, scored 117 fish after braving the rain on Belton this evening.

These fellows were presented with a fishing gift certificate by Chris’s father-in-law, Charles Wood, of Temple, and today was the day they decided to cash it in before Danny must head back to school this coming Tuesday for his seventh grade year.

The rain that forced postponement of several trips Monday and Tuesday looked like it was going to give us a break today but, low and behold, just as I began launching the boat, more rain moved in from the southwest. When Chris and Danny pulled in we consulted and simply decided that the fishing was worth getting wet, and so we left the rain gear in our vehicles and headed out to catch some fish.

As we started off, I targeted catfish in deep open water on a windward facing breakline in about 32 feet of water. Once we held over this area using the Ulterra’s Spot Lock function and got chum down, the catfish began to respond. Eight catfish into the trip, we heard thunder drawing nearer and got off the lake until ‘all clear’.

Once the storms passed, and the weather began to improve, the fish went on an absolute feeding frenzy lasting from roughly 6 PM until dark at 8:40 PM. During this time we located fish either by searching for nervous water and or by sighting the white and gray terns feeding actively just above the water’s surface as they scavenged shad left dead or crippled by the white bass below them. Our bait of choice tonight was a chrome bladebait. The color, size, and profile did a great job of mimicking the pray these white bass were targeting.

We found such action occurring in two distinct locations with the first area going quiet around 7:45 PM and the second spot firing up around that same time and lasting until right at dark.

By the time all was said and done we had landed 117 fish including 8 catfish, 5 largemouth bass, and 104 white bass.

TALLY = 117 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:40p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Water Surface Temp: 84.7

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-9

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds with rain between 4:40p and 5:40p

Water Level: ~2.11 feet high. Lake rose 0.55 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

This past Thursday morning, August 18th, I fished the 12th SKIFF program trip of the 2016 season with Maurice W. Jr. and Kaitlyn A., accompanied by their mothers, Tionna W. and Charmain A.

Kaitlyn took big fish honors this trip with an 11th hour hybrid striper that struck her Pet Spoon. This was one of 3 fish (2 hybrid and 1 white bass) she landed at the same time on a 3-armed umbrella rig as we fished under terns which pointed the way to actively feeding fish in deep, open water.

Maurice keeps an eye on the competition as we headed up shallow and fished for sunfish at mid-morning for varitety’s sake. Maurice holds a bluegill sunfish while Kaitlyn holds a redear sunfish.

Kaitlyn’s dad, Kevin A. serves as a US Army armor officer and is currently deployed to Afghanistan. Maurice’s dad, Captain Maurice W. Sr., is also an armor officer assigned to the planning section of III Corps. III Corps serves as the headquarters of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve leading a regional campaign of coalition and international partners synchronizing military action against the Islamic State in Southwest Asia.

This was the first time I’ve been on the water in over a week thanks to near-constant rain since a cold front blew in last Friday afternoon. Despite having over 6 inches of rain, because the rain fell gently, the lake condition and elevation have really not changed much over the past week, with discharge at the dam roughly equaling rain input.

Heavy grey cloud cover persisted during our entire time on the water this morning. This eliminated the low-light top water bite that more frequently occurs with a sudden brightening of the sky at sunrise on less cloudy days. Our trip broke down into five distinct components.

First, we downrigged with Pet Spoons up shallow, then moved out to deeper water after seeing a few juvenile terns working over fish in deep open water. Downriggers continued to be productive for these fish, as well. Next, we moved up into shallow water and targeted sunfish. We then pursued catfish using cut bait near bottom. We wrapped up the trip back under birds using downriggers and put the kids on fish right up until we wrapped up at 10:45 so as to end on a positive note. It was during this last round under birds that Kaitlyn landed our largest fish of the trip, a 19.75” hybrid striper, which was part of a triple she caught on a 3-armed umbrella rig.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips like this one are provided free of charge thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers. Homefront parents separated from their military spouse due to that spouse’s duty may contact me at 254.368.7411 to arrange for a 4-hour trip, totally free of charge.

For their efforts today the kids wound up boating a grand total of 50 fish.

TALLY = 50 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp: 84.3

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE 8-10

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds and occasional light drizzle

Water Level: ~2.11 feet high. Lake rose 0.55 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

This past Wednesday afternoon, August 10, I fished with Mr. Eron Hedgecoth and his 10-year-old son, Grayson, of Little River, Texas.

Grayson Hedgecoth and his dad, Eron, with our largest catfish of the trip, a 17 inch channel cat taken on fresh, dead shad in 32′ of water while the air temperature was 102F.

After the catfishing and before the white bass went crazy on top, we did some downrigging, resulting in this nice hybrid striped bass which fell for a Pet Spoon.
Eron is a signalman for the railroad and therefore travels quite a bit. We would both have preferred to fish in the cool of the morning, but neither of our schedules allowed for that to happen before Grayson heads back to school, so we chose this afternoon to make that special event happen.

In many ways my afternoon trips are conducted in reverse of my morning trips. By this I mean we set out looking for blue catfish in deeper open water first, awaiting a resurgence of activity in progressively shallower water by white bass and hybrid striper as sunset approaches.

We spent our first 70 minutes hovering over 32 feet of water with fresh, dead shad suspended just above the bottom targeting heavily schooled catfish. During that time we hooked and landed exactly 30 catfish, including 27 blues, and 3 channels, the biggest of which was approximately 17 inches long and about 2 1/2 pounds.

For variety’s sake, and given Grayson’s age, we next began to search for relatively inactive but heavily schooled white bass also in deep, open water, although we could have continued to catch catfish. Such fish this time of year tend to congregate on breaklines when they are inactive between morning and evening feeds, and today was no exception. On several gentle breaks we found heavily schooled fish (literally hundreds of them) and used the downriggers to present our baits to many inactive fish in hopes of getting the handful of more active fish among them interested in biting. This did the trick for multiple singles and two sets of doubles allowing us to put another 16 fish in the boat, including 15 white bass and one keeper hybrid striper.

As we downrigged, I noted that the fish were progressively moving shallower and appearing gradually higher in the water column. This was our signal to leave the downriggers behind, move up shallow, and begin working baits horizontally. For this work, I chose spinning gear equipped with blade baits. We worked our blade baits in 15 to 17 feet of water and picked up both white bass and freshwater drum at a moderate, but consistent pace right up through sunset. At sunset, when I did not see nor hear any top water action immediately near us, I began cruising and looking for the distinct appearance of nervous water indicating white bass and or hybrid striper pushing shad to the surface. Within minutes, we found exactly what we were looking for, got the boat situated a cast’s distance away from the fish to keep from spooking them, and began putting the fish after fish in the boat casting blade baits to them and immediately retrieving our lures to keep them high in the water column. We quickly put another 22 fish in the boat before the action died about 25 minutes after sunset. We ended our trip with exactly 73 fish landed for our efforts.

TALLY = 73 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:40p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 102F

Water Surface Temp: 89.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-12

Sky Conditions: 20% white clouds on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~2.20 feet high and falling ~ 0.7 feet per day with a reduced flow of ~2800 cfs